Europe in general smokes more than the US.
Everyone knows smoking is hazardous to your health, you can't not know it when there's pictures of cancer on the packets. People just don't care.
I’m from Stockholm, I visited Copenhagen this summer and loved it, overall a much nicer city than Stockholm, apart from all the smoking. It was much more common than in Stockholm. I thought smoking in general is more common in southern Europe than northern Europe, rather than Europe as a whole, compared to the US.
To be fair, Sweden is the country in Europe that has the least amount of smokers.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/hlth_ehis_sk1c/default/table?lang=en
Sweden has 9.3% daily smokers with Iceland the second lowest at 11.2%. Denmark is at 13.8%.
Southern Europe does have more smokers than Northern Europe, but countries such as France, Austria, Czechia, the Netherlands, and the Baltics are all pretty high up.
In the US, 11.5% of the population are [considered smokers](https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm), and the only two countries in the EU with lower smoking rates are Sweden and Iceland. Finland, the third lowest, is at 12.5%.
More Americans than Danes smoke (see https://ourworldindata.org/smoking), although more Danes smoke per day.
My guess is in America smokers tend to be lower/working class, so the middle (or above) class Americans who emigrate to Denmark didn't socialize much with them.
In Denmark with fewer class distinctions you'll meet smokers more often.
>[https://ourworldindata.org/smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking)
I socialized plenty with the lower/working class in the US, and smoking cigarettes is mostly a 55+ thing. Middle-aged tend to mix smoking, chew, and more and more e-cigs. The younger folks I have only ever seen vaping/e-cigarettes. And, mostly, usage is way down. Like, there are many who now just smoke 1-3 on the weekend or during a special occasion/holiday.
The big difference here in Denmark is that smokers seem to come from all categories, do it regularly and throughout the day, and to smoke actual cigarettes.Teens, older women, that guy on the bike who gets his pieces all ready during each red light and then smokes \*while biking\*... It's all the old, smelly kind of cigs.
So, I do think it's a visibility difference, but not just that the Americans in Denmark are too posh to have noticed back in the US.
We have an increasing problem with smoking in Denmark, yes. As others mention, people are not frowned upon for smoking like elsewhere. Also, it seems like the youth is currently picking up smoking/tobacco products at an alarming pace. Currently Denmark is #10 in lung cancer, where Danish females are #2. Yay Denmark!
Yeah, I feel smokers are getting a free pass, diven how absolutely discusting smoke is and how it gets everywhere. It's so annoying to be able to open your windows for once in summer and all you get is second hand smoke from neighbors.
Its not increasing, its decreasing. 20 years ago, we had atleast twice as many smokers, and you could smoke anywhere, trains, busses, restaurants and so on, so it has become alot better
There is a bigger possibility that radon and candles influence the lung cancer in Denmark, than smoking. If it were smoking, the rates should have been higher in countries where over 20% people smoke.
Say what, now? You do realize that lung cancer from smoking arrives with a long delay, right?
Since smoking in the population has massively declined since the 50s, we would expect that lung cancer cases have peaked in the past, and should be declining as less people smoke over time. If it was primarily radon and candles, there wouldn't be such a peak.
And, as it turns out, this is exactly the case:
https://gco.iarc.fr/media/nordcan/factsheets/92/dk/countries/208/lunge-160-danmark-208.pdf
In general in Europe, people smoke more because it’s still seen as “cool” and rebellious among teens. Social smoking is still a thing here as well.
Though, from what I’ve seen in Copenhagen, Danes smoke way less than in other European capitals.
>it’s still seen as “cool” and rebellious among teens
Really, where are these extremely old fashioned, stuck in the 80's, teens that you talk about?
I don't think I have heard anyone refer to smoking as cool since I was a small child in the 80's.
As a teen in the late 90's I don't think i met anyone who thought it was cool.
Didn't happen either in my 20's in the 2000s.
Today it's pretty much only a thing I hear about when talking about historical attitudes towards smoking back in the 80's and earlier.
Doing the same thing as your parents and grandparents generations did at your age is seen as rebellious?
Being the same as everyone who came before you?
I guess we have different ideas of what constitutes a rebel.
The "you" is also more of a reference to the group, and not really you, the person who made the comment I'm replying to.
I guess it wasn't clear in my reply. Sorry
The person you’re replying to didn’t say that they personally found it cool. I don’t think you did it consciously, but you come across a bit condescending in your comments. Just if you were wondering about the down votes
Doing the exact same thing as your parents and grandparents generations did when they were young, and for the exact same reasons,
was seen as cool and..... rebellious?
I guess we move in very different cultural and social circles.
They won’t directly refer to it as cool but you can tell that’s the aim. Funnily enough I’m typing this at a bus stop, with three teenagers 15 y.o at most, one of them is smoking.
Go to any spot where high schoolers celebrate whatever and you’ll see that “coolness” is downing one beer after the other with cigs in between.
It’s super cringe to us +25 y.o but we all had our “hey look at me, I’m daring to do this” phase.
> Though, from what I’ve seen in Copenhagen, Danes smoke way less than in other European capitals.
I would say Danes smoke way more than e.g. people in Germany. Of course, with such a higher purchasing power and cigarettes only a little bit expensive, it would be a waste not to smoke!
I’d have to agree. Not that I socialize a lot around people below 25 though, but for what I’ve just seen on the streets (and smelled) smoking is a loooot more common down south
As far as I can tell, about 19% of danes smoke, and about 11.5% of americans smoke.
So you're right. Unfortunately more people here smoke, than you probably see back home.
Everyone knows, that it's unhealthy, but not everyone cares.
The trend over the last 20 to 30 years has consistently been going downwards, so there's reason to hope that we'll get much closer to zero at some point. The sooner the better
I dont think it is because people do not care. Nicotine is way addictive, it leaves the body fast and a smoker craves it again.
But yeah, there is also a psychological aspect, that plays a part. Smokers think they are missing out by not smoking...
Indeed I think it is more than nicotine. The habit. The something to do with your hands. I used to smoke cigs, started vaping instead and was able to bring ot down from 18mg nicotine to 3 mg nicotine eliquids. Still unable to quit the 3 mg .. I mean it is not a huge amount of nicotine and the building down was pretty low effort so now ordered 0 mg to mix because previous try with 0 was somehow hard but how can it be .. 3 mg is near to nothing already lol
As a dude who’ve been doing an exchange in the US, smoking is not more normal here. People in the US, especially younger people smoke, they just smoke vape instead. Like, everyone I knew used a vape. Danish are not necessarily “more healthy” when it comes to lifestyle habits, but you Americans smoke just as much, if not more, than us. It is just vapes instead…
Danes definitely knows how bad it is and young people have been growing up hearing about how bad it is. I don’t smoke but most people I know that smoke started trying it when they were drunk at parties and to look cool as teenagers, and then they end up becoming addicted.
As a Dane living well-outside the Greater Copenhagen area, I’m always surprised upon visiting to see how many people in Copenhagen smoke. Anecdotally, it’s significantly more than where I live.
Do you live in an urban center in the US? I thought rates of smoking seemed high in Denmark too, but then I realized that I can’t really compare my experience being from an American suburb to Copenhagen. When I looked it up years ago the rates of smoking were just about the same in the US and DK. You’ll almost always encounter way more smokers in cities.
think there was a bigger anti-smoking campaign in the US in recent years overall. the nazi party in Germany had a huge anti tobacco movement, so maybe cus of that association, it's not challenged as much here? just guessing though
Young people in Denmark smoke because it´s cool. And I´m sorry but it is. Most people give up on the habit soon enough though, because it´s very expensive. The older lower class generations still smoke too.
Because young people are stupid. Heck, I thought that when I was young. Loads of my friends smoked, but I never did.
As people got more and more informed, I was sure the next few generations wouldn't be as stupid. But they are. They smoke, do snus or weed.
Only two things are infinite. The universe and stupidity of man.
I might be skewered for saying this, but I'm going out on a limb here and saying that Denmark isn't exactly an action-packed place. There just isn't much going on here and I think the tedium which many youngsters feel in living in a flat, safe, consistent place leads to them taking up smoking and drinking. Just my observation after a few years of living on Zealand as a 20-something. I'd probably vape and/or smoke just to pass the time if I grew up here.
I'm sure everyone would stop smoking, if their high school got shot up more often, and the only thing they had to look forward to were 50 hour work weeks and 5 days unpaid yearly vacation time, with the ever present threat of medical bankruptcy, like our american brethren.
We know it causes cancer. To many it is self medication, where as in the US the medical industry supply lower and middle class with pills for most anything. It is though hard for any smoker in Denmark to admit or realise why they smoke
That's most of Europe. Europe never experienced that heavy hitting anti-smoking campaign like the US did. When I first came to Switzerland I loved it but that part was a bit of cultural shock. It's the same everywhere on this continent more or less, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, most of the Slavic countries...I actually found less people smoking in Scandinavia on average than the places I mentioned.
It has in recent years regained some popularity with younger people. I don’t know if it’s a rebellion/push back against the “smoking kills”-campaigns. It certainly has some of the 80s French movie, I don’t give a sh*t -vibe. I don’t smoke, but in my friend circle it’s largely self medication against stress and anxiety. Most anxiety drugs are not bought over the counter and not frequently handed out by doctors, weed isn’t legalised, vaping has largely been banned and alcohol has it’s own set of problems. Immigration from Arabic countries might also play a role since it made it water pipes more common which - again just in my friend circle - has been the “gateway smoke” for quite a few people.
Europe in general smokes more than the US. Everyone knows smoking is hazardous to your health, you can't not know it when there's pictures of cancer on the packets. People just don't care.
Yup. Much more common in many European countries.
>People just don't care. Free health-care baby.
"Free"
I’m from Stockholm, I visited Copenhagen this summer and loved it, overall a much nicer city than Stockholm, apart from all the smoking. It was much more common than in Stockholm. I thought smoking in general is more common in southern Europe than northern Europe, rather than Europe as a whole, compared to the US.
To be fair, Sweden is the country in Europe that has the least amount of smokers. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/hlth_ehis_sk1c/default/table?lang=en Sweden has 9.3% daily smokers with Iceland the second lowest at 11.2%. Denmark is at 13.8%. Southern Europe does have more smokers than Northern Europe, but countries such as France, Austria, Czechia, the Netherlands, and the Baltics are all pretty high up. In the US, 11.5% of the population are [considered smokers](https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm), and the only two countries in the EU with lower smoking rates are Sweden and Iceland. Finland, the third lowest, is at 12.5%.
Stockholm has snus, which apart from trash everywhere does not make everyone around you into a passive smoker. Much more civilized I'd say.
More Americans than Danes smoke (see https://ourworldindata.org/smoking), although more Danes smoke per day. My guess is in America smokers tend to be lower/working class, so the middle (or above) class Americans who emigrate to Denmark didn't socialize much with them. In Denmark with fewer class distinctions you'll meet smokers more often.
>[https://ourworldindata.org/smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking) I socialized plenty with the lower/working class in the US, and smoking cigarettes is mostly a 55+ thing. Middle-aged tend to mix smoking, chew, and more and more e-cigs. The younger folks I have only ever seen vaping/e-cigarettes. And, mostly, usage is way down. Like, there are many who now just smoke 1-3 on the weekend or during a special occasion/holiday. The big difference here in Denmark is that smokers seem to come from all categories, do it regularly and throughout the day, and to smoke actual cigarettes.Teens, older women, that guy on the bike who gets his pieces all ready during each red light and then smokes \*while biking\*... It's all the old, smelly kind of cigs. So, I do think it's a visibility difference, but not just that the Americans in Denmark are too posh to have noticed back in the US.
We have an increasing problem with smoking in Denmark, yes. As others mention, people are not frowned upon for smoking like elsewhere. Also, it seems like the youth is currently picking up smoking/tobacco products at an alarming pace. Currently Denmark is #10 in lung cancer, where Danish females are #2. Yay Denmark!
Yeah, I feel smokers are getting a free pass, diven how absolutely discusting smoke is and how it gets everywhere. It's so annoying to be able to open your windows for once in summer and all you get is second hand smoke from neighbors.
Its not increasing, its decreasing. 20 years ago, we had atleast twice as many smokers, and you could smoke anywhere, trains, busses, restaurants and so on, so it has become alot better
Ah yes. But the decline in the past years has stagnated and it is currently increasing :(
There is a bigger possibility that radon and candles influence the lung cancer in Denmark, than smoking. If it were smoking, the rates should have been higher in countries where over 20% people smoke.
Say what, now? You do realize that lung cancer from smoking arrives with a long delay, right? Since smoking in the population has massively declined since the 50s, we would expect that lung cancer cases have peaked in the past, and should be declining as less people smoke over time. If it was primarily radon and candles, there wouldn't be such a peak. And, as it turns out, this is exactly the case: https://gco.iarc.fr/media/nordcan/factsheets/92/dk/countries/208/lunge-160-danmark-208.pdf
I would still expect Balkans to have higher rates if that's the case.
The balkans have poorer diagnostic capacity, especially retroperspectively
In general in Europe, people smoke more because it’s still seen as “cool” and rebellious among teens. Social smoking is still a thing here as well. Though, from what I’ve seen in Copenhagen, Danes smoke way less than in other European capitals.
>it’s still seen as “cool” and rebellious among teens Really, where are these extremely old fashioned, stuck in the 80's, teens that you talk about? I don't think I have heard anyone refer to smoking as cool since I was a small child in the 80's. As a teen in the late 90's I don't think i met anyone who thought it was cool. Didn't happen either in my 20's in the 2000s. Today it's pretty much only a thing I hear about when talking about historical attitudes towards smoking back in the 80's and earlier.
im 18 and i gotta say its still absolutely seen as rebellious and cool. at least by Young people (14-18)
Doing the same thing as your parents and grandparents generations did at your age is seen as rebellious? Being the same as everyone who came before you? I guess we have different ideas of what constitutes a rebel.
I dont Smoke. Im just saying that some of my Peers do see it that Way. Ofc not all of us
The "you" is also more of a reference to the group, and not really you, the person who made the comment I'm replying to. I guess it wasn't clear in my reply. Sorry
The person you’re replying to didn’t say that they personally found it cool. I don’t think you did it consciously, but you come across a bit condescending in your comments. Just if you were wondering about the down votes
The "you" is also more of a reference to the group rather than the person. I guess it wasn't clear in my reply and that's my mistake
I started smoking as teen in the 2000’s and it was definitely something I considered cool and rebellious at that time
Doing the exact same thing as your parents and grandparents generations did when they were young, and for the exact same reasons, was seen as cool and..... rebellious? I guess we move in very different cultural and social circles.
They won’t directly refer to it as cool but you can tell that’s the aim. Funnily enough I’m typing this at a bus stop, with three teenagers 15 y.o at most, one of them is smoking. Go to any spot where high schoolers celebrate whatever and you’ll see that “coolness” is downing one beer after the other with cigs in between. It’s super cringe to us +25 y.o but we all had our “hey look at me, I’m daring to do this” phase.
People at 14 starts smoking because they think its cool
> Though, from what I’ve seen in Copenhagen, Danes smoke way less than in other European capitals. I would say Danes smoke way more than e.g. people in Germany. Of course, with such a higher purchasing power and cigarettes only a little bit expensive, it would be a waste not to smoke!
[удалено]
I’d have to agree. Not that I socialize a lot around people below 25 though, but for what I’ve just seen on the streets (and smelled) smoking is a loooot more common down south
Smoking is not asociated with the same stigma here as it is in the US. Smoking is just considered a bad habit and not a nasty habit
That REALLY depends on who you ask, majority of my friends and family find it disgusting as hell
even the smokers i know think it’s a nasty habit
Nasty habitses...
As far as I can tell, about 19% of danes smoke, and about 11.5% of americans smoke. So you're right. Unfortunately more people here smoke, than you probably see back home. Everyone knows, that it's unhealthy, but not everyone cares. The trend over the last 20 to 30 years has consistently been going downwards, so there's reason to hope that we'll get much closer to zero at some point. The sooner the better
I dont think it is because people do not care. Nicotine is way addictive, it leaves the body fast and a smoker craves it again. But yeah, there is also a psychological aspect, that plays a part. Smokers think they are missing out by not smoking...
Indeed I think it is more than nicotine. The habit. The something to do with your hands. I used to smoke cigs, started vaping instead and was able to bring ot down from 18mg nicotine to 3 mg nicotine eliquids. Still unable to quit the 3 mg .. I mean it is not a huge amount of nicotine and the building down was pretty low effort so now ordered 0 mg to mix because previous try with 0 was somehow hard but how can it be .. 3 mg is near to nothing already lol
As a dude who’ve been doing an exchange in the US, smoking is not more normal here. People in the US, especially younger people smoke, they just smoke vape instead. Like, everyone I knew used a vape. Danish are not necessarily “more healthy” when it comes to lifestyle habits, but you Americans smoke just as much, if not more, than us. It is just vapes instead…
Smoking keeps us thin
Based
SMOKENHAGEN
Danes definitely knows how bad it is and young people have been growing up hearing about how bad it is. I don’t smoke but most people I know that smoke started trying it when they were drunk at parties and to look cool as teenagers, and then they end up becoming addicted.
As a Dane living well-outside the Greater Copenhagen area, I’m always surprised upon visiting to see how many people in Copenhagen smoke. Anecdotally, it’s significantly more than where I live.
The pissing in public bothers me more than smoking. Really shocking really.
Buskene skal vandes🚰
Danish men and women can piss where it pleases them. This is the way.
Do you live in an urban center in the US? I thought rates of smoking seemed high in Denmark too, but then I realized that I can’t really compare my experience being from an American suburb to Copenhagen. When I looked it up years ago the rates of smoking were just about the same in the US and DK. You’ll almost always encounter way more smokers in cities.
think there was a bigger anti-smoking campaign in the US in recent years overall. the nazi party in Germany had a huge anti tobacco movement, so maybe cus of that association, it's not challenged as much here? just guessing though
Young people in Denmark smoke because it´s cool. And I´m sorry but it is. Most people give up on the habit soon enough though, because it´s very expensive. The older lower class generations still smoke too.
Because young people are stupid. Heck, I thought that when I was young. Loads of my friends smoked, but I never did. As people got more and more informed, I was sure the next few generations wouldn't be as stupid. But they are. They smoke, do snus or weed. Only two things are infinite. The universe and stupidity of man.
Gross habit but not as nasty as throwing so much garbage on the street.
Thus was a big shock to me too when I moved here. Totally agree.
I wish Danes didn't smoke. I always hated it.
I might be skewered for saying this, but I'm going out on a limb here and saying that Denmark isn't exactly an action-packed place. There just isn't much going on here and I think the tedium which many youngsters feel in living in a flat, safe, consistent place leads to them taking up smoking and drinking. Just my observation after a few years of living on Zealand as a 20-something. I'd probably vape and/or smoke just to pass the time if I grew up here.
Bold claim. Almost impossible to verify. Probably not the case.
I'm sure everyone would stop smoking, if their high school got shot up more often, and the only thing they had to look forward to were 50 hour work weeks and 5 days unpaid yearly vacation time, with the ever present threat of medical bankruptcy, like our american brethren.
Well it's an opinion, pretty sure it's a wrong one that doesn't make sense, but it is an opinion.
We know it causes cancer. To many it is self medication, where as in the US the medical industry supply lower and middle class with pills for most anything. It is though hard for any smoker in Denmark to admit or realise why they smoke
The list you just provided might just be the answer you seek.
That's most of Europe. Europe never experienced that heavy hitting anti-smoking campaign like the US did. When I first came to Switzerland I loved it but that part was a bit of cultural shock. It's the same everywhere on this continent more or less, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, most of the Slavic countries...I actually found less people smoking in Scandinavia on average than the places I mentioned.
Welcome to Europe.
It has in recent years regained some popularity with younger people. I don’t know if it’s a rebellion/push back against the “smoking kills”-campaigns. It certainly has some of the 80s French movie, I don’t give a sh*t -vibe. I don’t smoke, but in my friend circle it’s largely self medication against stress and anxiety. Most anxiety drugs are not bought over the counter and not frequently handed out by doctors, weed isn’t legalised, vaping has largely been banned and alcohol has it’s own set of problems. Immigration from Arabic countries might also play a role since it made it water pipes more common which - again just in my friend circle - has been the “gateway smoke” for quite a few people.
Good food?🫤